


Consequences

by Immigrant_writer



Category: Naruto
Genre: Feel Free to Suggest Additional Tags, Gen, I wrote this in two hours ar 1 AM, Itachi saves Konoha, Uchiha Itachi Has Issues, Uchiha Itachi-centric, Uchiha Sasuke Has Issues, might do another chapter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:35:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25306831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Immigrant_writer/pseuds/Immigrant_writer
Summary: As Edo-Itachi is brought back from the dead, he must deal with the consequences of his actions. Marking it as complete but I may add more.
Relationships: Uchiha Itachi & Uchiha Sasuke
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	Consequences

Two Uchiha brothers stood not a mile from Konoha, both their hearts as cold as ice. Itachi felt the cold wind of the night blow on his face. He could identify it as the wind. He could tell it was cold. But it felt different from when he’d been alive.  
“Sasuke. What are you doing?”  
“They brought you back too? I’ll have to speak to Madara about that.”  
“Sasuke, answer me. What are you doing?”  
The twisted man with his brother’s face and Itachi’s own eyes stared at Itachi like he had gone mad. “What am I doing? I’m going to destroy Konoha.”  
“Wh-why?” It was different from when Naruto had said it. Now, he was hearing it straight from his brother’s mouth.  
Sasuke looked confused. “Why? How can you ask me that? They ordered you to kill our family. And then they branded you a criminal.”  
Itachi didn’t know what to say. His body began walking towards Sasuke, but his mind was not fully in it, still focused on his little brother. “Sasuke, I chose to kill our family. It hurt, and I wish I hadn’t had to, but I was the one who cut our parents down.”  
“That’s just it.” Sasuke said turning his head to the village. “You didn’t want to, but they gave you an ultimatum. The village in war, or the death of our clan. And they made you do it to protect their image. Because they could not bear to admit that the great peaceful Konoha had used genocide to avoid an insurrection. So they made a thirteen-year-old kill his family.” He looked back at his brother, the hatred in his eyes even more palpable than when he’d fought Itachi. But unlike those times the hatred melted away as soon as the eyes landed on Itachi. In their place there was… pity.  
Sasuke’s eyes quickly hardened “But now. Noe, the village’s greatest defenders are out fighting to protect their broken world, and I will exact my… our vengeance.”  
“Sasuke. I don’t want this. I chose the village over our family.”  
“But did I choose it? Did our parents? Did our uncles and aunts and cousins choose to die for Konoha? Did they?”  
Itachi didn’t have an answer. He had stopped a foot from his brother, and Sasuke didn’t look better up close.  
“And are you denying that you suffered? Branded a traitor. Hunted. And living being scorned for a sacrifice that saved all their despicable lives from the consequences of their actions? Look me in the eye and tell me you had no regrets.”  
For the first time since he’d met his brother, Itachi looked away from him. He could have lied. It was his first impulse. After all, he’d always lied to his brother. It was easy. But now… now Sasuke would see through it.  
“Why are you so shocked? You know I want revenge. You encouraged me to get it. I sacrificed everything to get it. Or is death only tolerable if it’s an Uchiha who’s the victim.”  
I need a different angle, Itachi thought. I need to dissuade him. “But none of them did anything wrong. There are innocent people. Civilians. Children…”  
“All living on the graves of the innocent people in the Uchiha clan.” Now Sasuke had taken a step forward and was staring in Itachi’s eyes. “What about all those children? Do they have less value because their lives would be inconvenient for the village?”  
Itachi balked. The children. He’d repressed those memories but now he was remembering their screams. He hadn’t killed them himself. Madara had done it for him. But he’d simply kept walking to kill any adults that tried to escape.  
“Sasuke please. Don’t do this.”  
“You made your decision. And I’ve made mine. You valued the village’s peace. No. You hated war more than you valued our clan. Well I value Justice for them more than I value the village.” For a second he stopped being angry and Itachi saw the little boy who’d walked into their parent’s room all those years ago.  
No, he wasn’t that boy. He was the boy Itachi had left unconscious in their compound, having made him watch his world be destroyed.  
“I can still see them. I can still see you cut our clan down in the Tsukoyomi. I can see you kill our parents. And I will not rest until…”  
Itachi’s Susanoo manifested, smaller than he was sure Sasuke realized was possible. Instead of the large chakra construct, he simply manifested the ribcage and the arm-like armor. And the Totsuka blade as a weapon.  
Sasuke chocked, looking confused before he looked down at the orange chakra in his chest. He stared back up at Itachi.  
Itachi wanted to explain. He wanted to tell Sasuke about Shisui’s sharingan. About the genjutsu that made him choose to protect the leaf above all others. But he couldn’t.  
How could he tell his brother that he’d laid a trap to force him to protect the village in case he came to hate it? Especially with just how much he hated it.  
And beyond that, would it be true? Kotoamatsukami made the protection of Konoha come before anything else but… would Itachi have done the same regardless?  
It didn’t matter as Sasuke was sucked into the jar to be sealed with Nagato. Orochimaru had been released into the land of the dead when Itachi had died, and Itachi knew that to die with Sasuke in the gourd would kill him, with not even a body to be found.  
Maybe that was better. He could offer his brother peace in the next world.  
Sasuke’s surprise soon turned to rage before just as quickly, and even more horribly changing to blank indifference.  
“Did I have too much hate Nii-san?”  
With that, Sasuke was gone, and Itachi was left standing in the field, staring at the place where his brother had been. It was over. In the end, Kotoamatsukami had made sure Sasuke couldn’t attack the village. It had been set up to deal with the unwanted consequences of Itachi’s actions and now those consequences had been dealt with. Everything was right. Konoha was safe.  
No. Konoha was at war. And he needed to make sure they had a chance. It was his duty as a shinobi.  
“Did I have too much hate Nii-san?”  
Itachi didn’t marinate on his brother’s words. He couldn’t think about them. And he couldn’t think about if that out of guilt or his genjutsu given duty.  
He turned around and ran. With the more immediate threat to the village gone, Kabuto was all that needed to be dealt with. When the Edo Tensei was undone, Itachi would stop existing in the land of the living.  
It was the only thing he was looking forward to.


End file.
